State Federation basketball tournaments canceled

The state Federation high school basketball "Tournament of Champions" has canceled its annual event because of the coronavirus pandemic, though the decision had largely become moot.

The tournament, in existence since 1978, brings together the public and private high school boys and girls basketball teams that already had won their respective state tournaments for a final end-of-season statewide championship event.

But this week the state basketball tournaments for public and private schools already have been canceled or postponed, eliminating the potential need for a federation tournament. In short, there can’t be a tournament of champions without champions.

In a statement, tournament organizers said: “The Federation took great consideration in balancing public health need and providing an opportunity for high school student-athletes to compete in our prestigious event. Unfortunately, the difficult decision had to be made to cancel our tournament.”

This year’s tournament was scheduled to take place March 27-29 at Fordham.

Its cancellation illustrates how quickly the sports landscape has changed in just a few days. On Monday, Fordham announced it still would be willing to hold the event but with only coaches and players in the gymnasium — seen as a somewhat significant restriction at that time.

Since then virtually every high school, college and professional sporting event and league has stopped play, at least temporarily.

By Jim Baumbach

jim.baumbach@newsday.com

Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.